The MSM’s a parody of itself and they’re not in on the joke

The MSM has become a parody of itself, and they’re the only ones not in on the joke. HBO might be ready to take over in the vacuum of real analysis.

On new show called “Last Week Tonight” with comedian John Oliver, who used to contribute to the Daily Show, Oliver interviewed former NSA chief General Keith Alexander. I watched the interview, and honestly Oliver does a better job at news than everyone at msnbc.

What’s obvious is that Gen Alexander is in on the joke. He played along with the ridiculous parts and did his best to have some fun with a really difficult topic.

Gen Alexander: I am the biggest advocate of freedom of the networks, the internet. If we could come up with a way of segregating all the terrorist communications, it would really help us, and civil liberties and privacy….There was a great statement by someone, all the bad guys need to be on this section of the internet and they only operate over here, and all good people operate over here.

My sarcasm meter pegs here. This is like saying “if we could come up with a way that all the criminals who have illegal guns would just wear red armbands, then we’d all be able to feel safer and let the police arrest them.” The MSM has no clue how to handle sarcasm, except when it’s theirs.

Oliver even got it, his reply: “You mean Pinterest?” Gen Alexander didn’t know what Pinterest was (I’ve visited it and still don’t know what it is) but he went with Oliver’s joke, finally admitting “I lived a sheltered life.”

The wound-too-tight crowd at Salon attempted to make this into hard news.

In the debut of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO Sunday night, John Oliver demonstrated his interviewing skills with a tough but funny conversation with former NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander regarding the lawfulness and the reach of the agency’s widespread surveillance activity. Eventually, Oliver pushed Alexander into a corner, demanding him to consider the implications of hunting through the proverbial haystack to find a needle.

Granted, Oliver mixed real questions in with his schtick, but “Last Week Tonight” is a symptom of a real sickness.

The MSM is sick, they’ve elevated their own opinions and dogmas above those of the people they serve, the public. They take themselves too seriously, and point at themselves versus pointing at the events and people they should be covering. Comedy shows masquerading as news do a better job of presenting the news because everyone is in on the joke.